DOCUMENT RESUME ED.225 286 4 EA 015,320 AUTHOR Goldstein, William TITLE SupervisiOn Made Simple. Fastback 180. - Bloomington, INSTITUTION , Phi Delta Kappa Educational Foundation, Ind.- REPORT NO ISBN-0-87367-180-5 PUB DATE 82 NOTE 32p.; This Fasiback is sponsoredby the Valdosta State College Chapter(Georgia) of Phi delta .Kap0a. AVAILABLE FROM'Publications,Phi 'Volta Kappa, Eighth andUnion, Box 789, Bloomington,4IN 47#02 ($.75;quantity discounts). PUIrTYPE Guides -LNon-Classroom Use (055) --Viewpoints (120) EDRS PRICE MF01 Plus Postage. PC Not Availablefrom EDRS. DESCRIPTORS *Administrator Role; Check Lists; Elementary Secondary Education;'EvaluationCriteria; *Evaluation Whods; Guidelimes; *Job Performance;Observation; *Teacher Evaluation; *TeacherSupervision AATRACT To assist school administrators,tlais handbook discusses types of supervision andevaluation and suggests ways-to assess teacherperformance. Aftey a brief introductorysection, the handbook's second sectionaddresses'five "fictions" abbut evaluation, including that evaluations must be"objective" and annual, require . direct<observation and standard evaluationforms, and involve gathering hard "data." Eleven criteriafor judging teacher performance are presented in the thirdeection, involving such things as teachei abilitywith skills and concepts, Englishspeaking and writing ability, expectations of studentscholalehip, variety of teaching methods, planning, classroomcontrol, pedagogical principles, class results on achievement tests,cooperation with etudents-and staff, handling of proceduresand reports, and.pursuit of professional growth. Thefollowing section discussestile uses and abuses of evaluation checklistd andsets forth the-three components of narrative evaluation repotts:Comments on the Meeting of objectfVes, descriptions of performance quality,and recommendations for improVement.. The fifthsection suggests 17 guidelines for supervision systems, claesroom visits,supervisory conferences, and narrative reports. Among theguidelines are evaluating tenured and taking notes during visits, being 4 Aontenured teacher's differently, sensitive to a supervisory conference"semotional context, and writing simple, direct reports. (KW) 416 ************************************.***********tm******************,*** Reproductions supplied by EDRS.are thebest that can be made from the original document. *********************************************************************** U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION NATIONALINST1TUTE OF EDUCATION EDUCATIONAL ROOURCES 1NFORkAATION CENTER IERICI ' This doturnent has been reproduced es 'mewed from the person or organization originating it Minor changes base been made to improve rizoroduLtion quality _ Points ,,hyleve or opiniOnS statettin this docu mem do not nocessarily repteseint official ME pOellion or police a I 416 "PERMISSION TO REPFIQOUCE THIS MATERIAL IN MICROFICHE ONLY HAS BEEN GRANTED BY L. 'eetitiedex TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURGES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC)." 2 WILLIAM GOLDSTEIN `s, William GOldstein is superintendent- of schools in Rocky Hill, Con- necticut. His experience as a school administrator also includes prin- cipalships of a junior high school iq Plainview, New York, and two high schools in Trumbull and Weston, Connecticut. He has taught graduate education courses at the Univt*iof Connecticut, Hunter College, and Western Connecticut State College, Old has also been a visiting lecturer at Wesleyan University. , Goldstein rece*ed his A.B. in Germanic languages and literatures from Boston University, and his M.A. in English and Ph.D- in secon- dary education from the University of Connecticut. In 1978, he received a felloWship from the National Endowment for the Humanities tostudy in the arts at Stanford University. He has published widely ill state-and national education journals, and is a consulting editor of The Clearing House. He is co-author of Syc- A:essful School Communications:4Manual and Guide for Ad-' ministrators (Parker Publishing Co.) *which was selected by the .4merican School Board Journal as one of the ten "must" books in education published in 1978. He is author of fastback 146, Controver- sial Issues in Our Schools, has served:as a fastback author-lecturer for Phi Delta Kappa, and has all() lectured widely in the United States and Canada-on a variety of educational matters, particularly on better ways of supervising and evaluating' educational personnel, the subject of this fastback. Senes Ednor, Derek L. Burleson 3 Supetviiion Made Simple By. William Goldstein Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 82-060800 ISBN 0-87367-180-5 Copyright 1982 by the Phi Delta Kappa EducationalFoundation Bloomington, Indiana Thisfastbackissponsored by the Valdosta' State College Chapter (Georgi) of,Phi Delta Kappa, which made a generous contribution toward peiblicatiop costs. tw. 4. Table of Contents 4 %%illReal Es aluation Please Stand Up 7 Of Managerial Myths and Fairy Tales 9 Seeing What Should Be Seen: Quality in the Classroom... 13 Checklists ss. Narratises: Which to Use. Hon. and When..26 Some Practical Guidelines for Supenisors 24 the Challenge Of Supeisision in the Future 28 . ,c Dedication g for My Three Sons Howie: Who wants so much to make a sad planet laugh and laugh and laugh!, Wayne), Who "hears a differenidrurnmer" and dreams the magical dreams perhaps all people ought to dream! Danny: Who delightsattryingtobe -"allthingstoall men ".,. an'd ma y. very well Make it! With dteMal affection, 4 Will Real Evaluation Please Stand Up Administrators and supervisors in public schdols across the land are - harged (some would say burdened) with evaluating personnel, ranging from cafeteria and custodial employees to the central figures in the education process teachers. In the past 20 years or so administrators !rave been beguiled by. philosophieS of "management." Many of our schools havi ivolved facsimilies 'of factories as the MBO-cost effectiveness-accountability metaphors of Management have become implanted in the thinking of tbose responsible for pe..Esannel evaluation. To compare the results of teaching with the results of manufacturingis both unfortunate and erroneous. Nonetheless, administratorsand supervisors have become obsessed with the need to evaluate school per- sonnel as demands for "productivity" in the public sector havein- creased. And it is no secret that administrators have responded to these public demands in almost reflex fashion. Evaluating the .teaching performance of someone else isserious business. Those who undertake it must understand full well that stu- .dents corhe to school primarily to be taught, not to be "managed" (not- withstanding the p4d for "discipline," which, in a sense, is manage- ment incarnate.. t mak'be commehdable to makeschools more respon- sive to the harsh r alities of late 20th-century America, butthe promis- sory rhetoric ofmanhement always exceeds its capacity to deliver d especially when. trying to deal with the slippery matters ofteaching and t learning. In short, the logic and lexicon of the accountantwith his relentless fixation on "the bottom line" is Whollyinafkropriate to the - 7 sensitisitieAyd-spmetintes mysteries, of how and why children learn or IL Abi ----the key ko effectise supersis;ion and esuludtion .res4; in making cer- s . tam distinctions between the act of supervision and the subsequent act of evaluation diytinctions all too frequently overlooked by those charged with supervisoryresponsibilities. Supervisionand evaluation 'are not:complicated. This fastbasii is devote4 keeping simple things imple. -and not needlesslyentangling educational leaders in a labyrinth 4 dotted line's, flowss.harts, arrows, and scherfiatic's so cherished by management models. Essentithis tastback will, tlo &Ad!. Kith'some persistent fictions about esaluation; offer criteria for judgirtg teachers' performance; discuss how and for sslem to use either checklist; or narratise reports of performance; anti presentgualehnesfor manag,ingsupers-tsion,conducting classroom %hits and supervisory cOnferehes, and writing nar- 'rause reports 111 fib I - . Of Managerial Myths and FairyTales r Inthe words of Kojak, the super-macho detective oftelevision fame, "Fairy tales, baby, I 'love 'em." In a more digcreet way, thatis exactly what inally administrators and teachers have said to theprofessional types who vend advice about evaluating teachersand other employaes in the public schools. To begin, let us do away with somepersistent fic- tions. FICTION: All evaluation must be lobjective." Educalors have long been enamored with the spirit of scientismand its canons of objectivity. Written evaluationof someone's services is supposed to pulsate' with that antiseptic qualitycalled "objectivity." There is utterly no objectivity in evaluatingsomeobe else's peiformance. Sofileone assigned to judge axe value of thesebices of someone else comes yalue-loaded to that activity.Judgments made on someone else's performance are highly personal and,verytinkly, ought to be. The faclis that no matter how one looks at, a problem, apersonal point of view is probably the most powerful ingredientfor assessing the quality of someone else'sservices. Even our courts have ruled*thata supervisor's judgment can be supported as long asthe technical com- petence and fairnesse that supervisorhave been established. 9 FICTION: Propet evaluation demands "data." 4 persistent hoax 'Afflicting evaluation of personnel in the public schpols is the idea that "data gathering" a kissin? cousin to scientism ---.. is- the best way for determining